After hundreds of undocumented immigrants were arrested in February, it became clear that the new president had begun making good on a campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration. Having written about immigration before, we knew other, subtler changes were most likely already happening — from how immigration officers make their arrests and who they take in to the lives of those left behind. To understand those changes, we had to see enforcement on the ground.

We got our chance when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers allowed us to come along with them for a day in June. There were two teams on the ride-along: a photographer, a videographer and a reporter would ride with an ICE officer and another team of New York Times journalists would follow behind, talking with the families of the men who were arrested that day.

Ride-alongs have long been a journalistic staple, providing a chance to see law enforcement officials “in action.” We’ve been on several, including with the New York and Los Angeles police departments. There is a certain kind of theater to them; officers know that every word they say is being recorded and rarely let their guard down. Although we knew we might get a slightly sanitized version of ICE’s work, this was a nearly unprecedented opportunity to see it.

Descending on loved ones while their pain was fresh felt intrusive. Yet an essential part of our work is explaining the complicated reality of enforcement — we wanted to see who the families were and how they think of themselves and la migra, as ICE is referred to by many Spanish speakers. Meeting them would help us give readers a more nuanced understanding of how one arrest can affect several people — not just the pain they felt, but the financial ruin some feared because the main breadwinner had been taken away.

Of the families of the five people the agents arrested, just two were willing to speak with us. At the home of Fidel Delgado, his bewildered wife, Maria Rocha, seemed comforted that one of us was a Spanish speaker who identified as a reporter and was interested in telling their story. Tearful, their 21-year-old daughter, Ana, blurted out in English, “What are we going to do?” And after Anselmo Morán Lucero was apprehended, his wife looked for advice we as journalists could not give. “Should we hire a lawyer,” she asked, “even though the agent told me not to, saying he will be deported anyway?”

David Marin, the supervising officer who served as our guide, was more than willing to offer his opinions. Even before sunrise, he spoke at length about the way many of his officers feel vilified in Southern California, one of the country’s most immigrant-friendly regions. “We’re not evil,” Mr. Marin said, a sentiment he would repeat throughout the morning.

He spoke of his frustration under the Obama administration, when he said that just a year ago officers were hamstrung from doing the kind of enforcement they signed on to do.

Watching the agents in action showed just how much latitude the officers now have. During one arrest, the officers debated whether they should take in a husband and wife together, leaving their U.S.-born teenage son in protective services. “You know what you’re doing,” Mr. Marin told the officers. “This is your call.”

Each man was shackled and led into an unmarked van with blacked-out windows. The van followed the officers for a few hours, as they made several other arrests before ending up at a processing center.

The two whose families had spoken to us earlier agreed to be interviewed. Another began to talk, but stopped when an officer said he would need to sign a form legally consenting to the interview. “I don’t want them to use this against me,” he said.

We explained to them there that we were not working with the agents, and that they could decide what information could be made public, but we could not promise them more than that. As they tried to understand the implications — will they have to leave the United States? — nobody could tell them anything for certain.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A2 of the New York edition with the headline: In the Wake of Immigration Arrests. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe